in shops and factories.  It is obvious that such competition reduced the field of free labour, when it did not close it entirely, and the free labour must have been unduly cheapened.  But to suppose that all the Roman work, whether in town or country, was done by slaves is to be grossly in the wrong.  Romans were to be found acting as ploughmen and herdsmen, workers in vineyards, carpenters, masons, potters, shoemakers, tanners, bakers, butchers, fullers, metal-workers, glass-workers, clothiers, greengrocers, shopkeepers of all kinds.  There were Roman porters, carters, and wharf-labourers, as well as Roman confectioners and sausage-sellers.  To these private occupations must be added many positions in the lower public or civil service.  There was, for example, abundant call for attendants of the magistrates, criers, messengers, and clerks.  Unfortunately our information concerning all this class is very inadequate.  The Roman writers—­historians, philosophers, rhetoricians, and poets—­have extremely little to say about the humble persons who apparently did nothing to make history or thought.  They are mentioned but incidentally, and generally without interest, if not with some contempt, except where a poet is choosing to glorify the simple life and therefore turns his gaze on the frugal peasantry, who doubtless did, in sober fact, retain most of the sturdy old Roman spirit.  About the soldiers we know much, and not a little about the schoolmasters.  The connection of the one occupation with history and of the other with authors will account for this fact.  Something will be said of the army and also of the schools in their special places.  Keepers of inns are not rarely in evidence in the literature of satire and epigram, and no language seems too contemptuous for their alleged dishonesty.  But of inns enough has been said.  We learn that the booksellers made money out of the works of which they caused their slaves to make copies, and which they sold in “well got up” style for four shillings, or, in the case of slender volumes, for as little as fourpence-halfpenny.  But to this day we do not know how much profit an author drew from the bookseller, or how it was determined, or whether he drew any at all.  It is most reasonable to suppose that he sold a book straight out to the publisher for what he could get.  Otherwise it is hard to see how any check could be kept upon the sales.  The only occupation upon which literature offers us systematic information is agriculture, including the pasturing of cattle and the culture of the vine.  For the rest we derive more knowledge from the excavations of Pompeii than from any other source.  From actual shops and their contents, from pictures illustrating contemporary life, and from inscriptions and advertisements, we are enabled to reconstruct some picture of commercial and industrial operations.  We can see the fuller, the baker, the goldsmith, the wine-seller, and the wreath-maker at their work.  We can discern something of the retail trade in the Forum; or we can see the auctioneer making up his accounts.